Good performance if you get PC3200 (DDR400) RAM (avoid DDR333) and overclock it. Corsair and GSKILL are brands I trust, but they cost a little more... that may force you to go down to a 3000+ to save some bucks. Do some homework on the RAM... You want good stuff if you want more out of your CPU than advertised. Not that I am a big overclocker... I do toy with it from time to time. I know I can push my 3800+ X2 much harder than 2.5GHz for each core (standard is 2.0GHz).